It was a new day, and the drama workshop was about to begin. The participants were new to each other, and the leader knew he needed to settle their nerves, he knew many were experienced drama practitioners, and some were new to the game.

They were all apprehensive, he could tell by the way they all hugged the wall, standing arms folded, showing all the traits of the uncertain.

He called for them to pair up and introduce themselves. There was movement as pairs took form, one woman walked across the room and asked a man opposite her if she could partner him as he looked the less intimidating of the group. He blushed and held out his hand in welcome.

Then the game was on.

They worked initially in pairs, and then he extended the participation to groups of three then four.

It was important to him for the participants to feel they were succeeding and so he made a point of telling performers and groups how well they were doing.

While the performers worked together all was good, he knew that when he asked them to work as one, then he might encounter some opposition.

It was a simple game, in groups of four they were asked to compete against each other to form letters of the alphabet. To this, they had to lie on the ground and form the letters using their bodies. The fastest group was the winner. It was a lot of fun, and there was much laughter.

It was when he called bacon and eggs that things went silent. The participants looked at him and then at each other. The leader said it again, form a shape to resemble bacon and eggs.

A brave group over to one side suddenly went into action with the males laying in a sort of crumpled way, suggesting bacon and two females rolled themselves up on top of them as the eggs.

Once he asked this of the group, he knew there would be some who would find touching anyone or being touched a problem.

It was at this point he sat the group down and asked them to talk about their reactions to the workshop. Some had loved everything they did, some felt very confronted by what they had to do.

Drama he pointed out is an activity in which not everyone is comfortable. It tests your ability to step outside of yourself, it challenges you in ways you never imagined, but no matter what, it’s about enjoying what you are doing and at the end realizing you have done something you may not have thought yourself capable of.

The discussion that followed was fruitful, all participants felt included and were thankful for being there, no matter how confronted they had felt.

The ice had been broken, tomorrows workshop would be brilliant.

Written for: https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2019/04/25/reenas-exploration-challenge-84/